Jackson's voice played at trial

LOS ANGELES - First, prosecutors showed a photo of Michael Jackson's pale and lifeless body lying on a gurney. Then, they played a recording of his voice, just weeks before his death.

Slow and slurred, his words echoed Tuesday through a Los Angeles courtroom at the start of the trial of the doctor accused of killing him. As a worldwide audience watched on TV and Jackson's family looked on from inside the courtroom, a drugged Jackson said:

"We have to be phenomenal. When people leave this show, when people leave my show, I want them to say, 'I've never seen nothing like this in my life. Go. Go. I've never seen nothing like this. Go. It's amazing. He's the greatest entertainer in the world.' "

Prosecutors played the audio for the first time during opening statements as they portrayed Dr. Conrad Murray, 58, as an incompetent physician who used a dangerous anesthetic without adequate safeguards and whose neglect left the superstar abandoned as he lay dying.

Defense attorneys countered that Jackson caused his own death by taking a drug dose, including propofol, after Murray left the room.

Nothing Murray, a cardiologist, could have done would have saved Jackson, defense attorney Ed Chernoff told jurors, because Jackson was desperate to regain his fame and needed rest to prepare for crucial comeback concerts.

Jackson's family members were in the courthouse, including his father, Joseph, mother, Katherine, sisters LaToya and Janet, and brothers Jermaine, Randy and Tito.

Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison and the loss of his medical license.

Prosecutor David Walgren showed a photo of a lifeless Jackson on a hospital gurney. He juxtaposed the image with those of Jackson performing. Walgren also played the recording of Jackson speaking to Murray while, the prosecutor said, the singer was under the influence of an unknown substance roughly six weeks before his death.

The recurring theme was Jackson's never-ending quest for sleep and propofol, the potion he called his "milk" and that he believed was the answer. Jurors were told it was a powerful anesthetic, not a sleep aid, and Walgren said Murray severely misused it.

Chernoff, the defense attorney, claimed the singer swallowed several pills of the sedative lorazepam on the morning of his death and that was enough to put six people to sleep. After taking propofol, Jackson did not even have a chance to close his eyes, he said.

Chernoff claimed that Jackson died not because his doctor continued to give him the drug but because he stopped it, forcing Jackson to take extreme measures.

He said Murray was trying to wean Jackson off propofol and had been giving him other sleep aids known as benzodiazepines trying to lull him to sleep.

On June 25, 2009, the last day of Jackson's life, Chernoff said, he was in the third day of a weaning process and it didn't work.

Murray, in a recording of his interview with police detectives, acknowledged that he relented and agreed to give Jackson a small dose of propofol.